Doodle and Dream
Curated by Lauren Kasmer & Michael Miller

El Camino College Art Gallery
September 5 - October 3, 2024

Artists:
Pamela Burgess, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Shana Nys Dambrot & Osceola Refetoff
, Ric Heitzman, Bonita Helmer, Linda Jacobson, Bruce Kasmer, Lauren Kasmer, William Lemon, Rodnie Nelson, Joanna Skumanich, Ester Pearl Watson, Lynda Weinman, Jody Zellen
"Doodle Room", 2024

My daily drawing ritual started during a residency in Rotterdam in 2004 where every morning upon waking I would put pen to paper, close my eyes and let my unconscious unfold in concert with the first song cued on my iPod. I continued this practice upon return and for the last 20 years I start the day by making two drawings. The first (no longer with eyes closed) resembles a scribble or a succession of lines and shapes. The second, rather than being a rhythmic interpretation of a song, contains silhouetted figures, sometimes appearing alone, other times appearing in groups or with geometric shapes that become dense abstracted cities. My daily practice is about discovery, there is no goal, just the pleasure of exploration and the enjoyment of the process. I don’t plan ahead, I let whatever unfolds from my unconscious fill the page.

While my daily drawings might seem parenthetical to my other art activities, they have taken on added significance and over the years and have filtered into other aspects of my work. Rather than just being a way to start the day, I began to migrate my doodling into my "studio" practice allowing my unconscious mark-making to fill large sheets of paper (and even walls as well as a suite of three of K-rails permanently on view on Main Street in Santa Monica).

In addition to drawing, I also make collages. I often cut out shapes and silhouettes from black pages from "Artforum Magazine," adhere them to paper and fill in the surrounding space. In these works the drawn plays off the collaged elements.

On the computer I make animated doodles using an early version of a program called Flash. Here a circle, an oval and three rectangles are joined together to resemble a human figure. This figure — an anonymous silhouette — signs for everyone. It is neither male nor female, nor even human, but when placed in various scenarios it is imbued with human qualities that elicit emotional responses. I see the figure as a tragic/comic entity. Like "Superman" or "Bugs Bunny," it is indestructible. It always bounces back, even when falling off of buildings or into holes. Color flashes for a discreet moment but then disappears to leave the black silhouette alone, inhabiting the frame or interacting with its borders.

Stills from these animations have been compiled into artist's books and fashioned into a sculpture that though grounded, spins to give the illusion of movement like a zoetrope. When I began to paint it came as no surprise that the silhouetted figure would appear, here surrounded by colorful shapes that often resemble abstracted architecture. I see the paintings as "colorful drawings" made with the same spontaneity as the doodles.

Presented together in "Doodle Room" it is my hope that these different mediums play off and inform each other allowing viewers to see connections and delight (as I do) in the process of making.